On Friday the 10th of June, a woman named Tekla Juniewicz, who was born in what used to be Austria-Hungary, turned 116. 

„You are a witness to history and a great example of how beautiful and rich human life can be„- President Andrzej Duda and his wife wrote to the elderly woman. 

Tekla Juniewicz was born on the 10th of June, 1906 in Krupsko in today’s Ukraine. After World War II and the resettlement, she moved to Gliwice with her husband Jan Juniewicz and her family. 

In 2017, she became the oldest living Polish woman after the death of Jadwiga Szubartowicz. This year, following the death of Kane Tanaka from Japan, she became the second-oldest person in the world.

As RMF 24 rightly noticed it, Mrs Tekla was 8 years old when World War I broke out, 12 when Poland regained independence, 21 when she married Jan Juniewicz, 22 years her senior, and 33 when World War II began.

Mrs Juniewicz outlived her eldest daughter and her son-in-law. In 1945, during the repatriation, the family in its entirety left the territory of the Soviet Union and after a two-week journey by train, reached Gliwice, where Mrs Tekla’s husband was employed in the Sośnica mine.

At the age of 111 and 113, she underwent two life-saving biliary tract surgeries, becoming the oldest-ever patient to undergo such a procedure.

The authenticity of Mrs Tekla’s age was documented, in cooperation with her family and through the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lviv.

Image: Kancelaria Prezytenta

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen